Would you like some bacteria with that?

When you have a shop or a business with lots of people coming in to buy products or to sit down and eat every day, you need to make sure you have a clean space with low levels of bacteria and mould.

There are over 900 research papers around the world which state that indoor air quality can be severely undermined by poor maintenance of the premise’s Air Handling Unit - or air conditioner.

The research has found that an air conditioner which is not well suited to space or has not been well designed to provide proper air flow and humidity control, can lead to serious bio-burden build up.

So if you're serving food in a cafe and you don't have the right air conditioning unit, you may be building up the mould and bacteria levels to a point where this can mean the building's occupants may find they're suffering serious health effects from this build up.

Take extra care of your air conditioning unit

All of this research means that the correct selection and maintenance of your air conditioning unit goes a long way towards achieving ideal levels of good indoor air quality.

Even a clean air conditioner will deliver several times the bio-burden found in outside air. A small level of contamination depositing inside the workings of an air conditioning system can lead to serious levels of contamination if the conditions are right.

The use of SAN-AIR products will lead to a major decrease in indoor bio-burden to levels to well below acceptable levels. We know that levels of mould below 150 colonies per 1000 Lt of air are required to ensure adequate indoor air health.

SAN-AIR products will allow you to achieve these low levels of mould when they're used in the air conditioning unit. As well, the SAN-AIR products will help keep the air conditioning unit from accumulating unsafe levels of bio-burden.

It's still recommended to implement a regular policy to clean the air conditioner's coils, filters and duct work.

More research

Studies have found that mould counts as low as 150 colonies per cubic meter of air have lead to discomfort and ill health for human occupants. Take a look at these facts:

Studies around the world show normal outdoor air carries 50 to 600 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air

The same studies show a 'clean' air conditioner delivers 1,000-2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air

When indoor air gets musty, or people start to show they're suffering ill effects, the air conditioner usually delivers well above 2,500 bacteria and mould per 1,000 Litres of air.

Australian Standards Reference:

SAA/SNZ HB32:1995

How can you test?

To find out if the indoor air quality in your home or place of work is at a reasonable level, you can call an approved Indoor Air Quality specialist to come out and measure your levels or call an approved microbiology laboratory.

If you'd rather check yourself...

You can buy SAN-AIR’s Mould and Bacteria test kit which will give you an indication of the level of mould you have. To compare the SAN-AIR kit with the guidelines stated above, you'll need to test the required surface, a square or rectangle between 20 and 30 cm in dimension. This will generate the appropriate comparison test value.

Surface readings between 200 and 500 cfu/cm2 will generate a coverage of the test plate which will look serious enough to draw your attention. Use the comparison charts to get an estimate. These indicate you should plan a clean of your premises' air conditioning unit sometime in the next month.

A test plate which is covered by mould can indicate seriously active contamination which can cause you respiratory distress. Comparing these plates against the reference results shows you the counts are 10,000 CFU or above. Time to clean up NOW!